Paschall Truck Lines President and CEO Randall Waller is putting all of the company’s stock into an Employment Stock Ownership Plan, or ESOP, that will keep the headquarters and jobs in Murray.

An ESOP provides employees with stock ownership through a trust, in this case with First Bankers Trust Services.

Executive Vice President Tom Stephens said before the announcement employees could have a 401k, but now they have an additional pension benefit.

“This is a retirement plan that when they reach 65 they will have a retirement,” Stephens said. “There wasn’t a retirement plan before.”

Waller’s move is part of his exit plan for his time in leadership at PTL, and Stephens said the CEO had other options.

“He could have sold it to another trucking company, which would have reduced the employees working here to where there would be a skeleton crew. Over 300 people would have lost their job,” he said. “Or he could have sold it to a private equity company and then in four or five years they would have resold it again, and there was a good chance that people would have lost their job. So this way his legacy goes on and jobs stay in Murray.”

Stephens says PTL’s employees can choose to opt in or out of the ESOP. PTL has around 300 employees in Murray.